


An Ongoing Process

by emjam



Series: lgbtq+ gravity falls [4]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Accepting Family and Friends, Bisexual Pacifica, Coming Out, Established Mabifica, Fluff, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Genderqueer Character, Genderqueer Mabel, Sleepovers, Trans Character, Trans Dipper Pines, Trans Girl Grenda, this is all just nice fluff ngl
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2018-09-06 14:38:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8756500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emjam/pseuds/emjam
Summary: Dipper and Mabel slowly come out to their friends and family in Gravity Falls.





	1. Better Than Expected

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much DipDopandMabelSunchild for asking me to write this - I liked the idea and I have more parts coming!
> 
> just a heads up, this is totally something I write when I want comfort so there's probably not going to be a lot of conflict in this. I know, that's not too realistic, but honestly these are just written when I want some happy fluff with trans characters' families/friends being accepting.
> 
> I didn't mean to write so much stuff for this series ^^; I guess I just wrote a ton cause lgbt acceptance make me happy.
> 
> [removed this from the end notes so that it wouldn't show up in all chapters:
> 
> I feel like Stan would come to know some trans people over his lifetime, whether they are friends he made over time or people he's met while living on the streets. Also, I just didn't want to deal with him not knowing anything ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> This is around season 1, btw.
> 
> (idk who has read the other parts of the series and seen something like this already, but a disclaimer: I am nonbinary, as far as I know. while I don't know how it is exactly to be a trans boy, I try to write this in good taste w/ the knowledge I have.)]

Mabel and Dipper decided that the best course of action would be to come out to their family and friends at Gravity Falls first, instead of their family back home. They were going to be there all summer, after all, and the thought that no one would call them by the correct pronouns all summer made Dipper in particular queasy and upset, so they planned it together.

Well, Grunkle Stan was actually the only person that they had made a real plan for. The others came a little bit easier once they had gotten over the hurdle of telling him.

Stan had been sinking into his chair in the living room, thoroughly enjoying a Baby Fights marathon, when two dark shapes clouded his view, cutting the light from the television. He immediately protested.

“Hey, what’re you gremlins doin’? I was watching that!”

Dipper worried the bottom of his shirt between two fingers. Grunkle Stan wasn’t the nicest, and there was no telling what an old man like him could think about trans kids… but he wasn’t that bad, right? And if he didn’t like it, they could just call their parents and go back to Piedmont. Tell their parents that there was a problem at the Shack or something, and Stan had to send them home. Slightly assured, he took a deep breath.

“Mabel and I have something to tell you.”

Mabel flicked on the lights, blinding both Stan and Dipper. Mabel aerself seemed unaffected. “Grunkle Stan, it’s so dark in here! How long have you been watching TV?”

Stan took a quick look around. “Oh, jeez. Didn’t realize how dark it got. Shouldn’t you two be in bed by now, or something?” He wasn’t actually sure what normal 12-year-olds should be doing this late, but it was a safe guess that they needed more sleep than he did.

“Nah, it’s the summer!” Mabel scoffed.

“Well, sounds reasonable to me.” Stan said, without any inkling of when children should sleep.

“Look.” Dipper started. “I just want to preface this with the fact that we’re the same kids you met earlier this summer, and, well, you’ll just know us more now...” He trailed off.

“What’re you, criminals?” He asked. Dipper wasn't sure if he was joking or not.

“N-no.” Dipper and Mabel looked at each other, and Dipper looked at the ground, studying the gross carpet. “This is serious, don't make jokes about it, okay?”

Stan grabbed the remote and turned the TV off, silencing the baby yelling that was previously the backdrop to their conversation. “Okay. No jokes. Shoot.” He gestured for Dipper to continue.

He took another deep breath. Okay. “Do you know what transgender is?” (Well, it worked on one person, he figured it wouldn't hurt to open with the same question again.)

“Yeah.”

Dipper’s head shot up, and Mabel looked slightly relieved, no matter how confident ae had been going into this. The fact that Stan knew what it was probably made things a lot easier, though they still didn't know if Grunkle Stan was super transphobic or anything, just that he knew that trans people existed.

“Oh, okay, well, you know us as girls, right?" He swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry. _Come on, you can do this._ "But that's not really true. I'm a trans boy, so I'd like it if you called me a he and a guy and stuff.”

Mabel burst in with about a pound of glitter, colored green, white, and purple, startling Dipper and making the gross carpet at least marginally more pleasing. “And I'm genderqueer, which means that I'm a super cool gender that isn't either a girl or a boy! And it'd be even cooler if you used ae and aer pronouns for me.” (Dipper’s comment of “Mabel, we agreed on no glitter!” went ignored.) At Stan’s confused face, ae added, “I wrote them down for you.” Glittery handwriting reflected off the light as a piece of paper was whipped out, presumably having been stored in some internal pocket in aer sweater. Ae put it in Stan's hands.

The momentary lack of response made Dipper sweat and Mabel grin just a little harder as a selling point, but then Stan got up slowly against his body's protests and knelt down to their eye level.

“Come ‘ere.” He enveloped each twin in a one-armed hug, and then gave Dipper a noogie. The twins were, honestly, kind of shocked - even with all of Mabel's optimism, ae had no idea what was actually going to happen, even if ae had, like always, hoped for hugs to prevail. Dipper was doubly surprised, considering Stan's ambivalence towards their general well-being sometimes. “I'll call ya whatever you want, all right? And if anyone tries to make you feel bad about being yourselves, direct ‘em to me. You won't be hearing from them again.”

He pushed himself back up with another pop of his joints and put his hands on his hips. “Now, who wants a late-night snack? I dunno about myself, but I got a growing boy over here. And this _other_ child would probably eat anything put in front of..” He glanced at the paper still in his hand. “..aer if it had glitter on it.” He ruffled Mabel’s hair.

“Weird old man hair does _not_ count as glitter," Mabel answered as they headed towards the kitchen. Ae, however, did not refute the glitter claim, which slightly worried Dipper.

Stan just laughed. “It's a staple of my food, kid, and you better get used to it.”


	2. Weird People

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mabel finally comes out to Candy and Grenda at the Shack's reopening party.

Candy and Grenda were weird people, who seemed like they wouldn't judge the weird things about aer, which is why Mabel decided to greet them at the Shack’s reopening party with a very enthused explanation of aer gender and pronouns. After all, ae had spent long enough hiding it - around 2 weeks, which was certainly long enough for aer! Ae had to admit, even though these were aer people, ae was a bit nervous. Losing these friends would be particularly tough - they had already spent quality sleepovers together, and connections enforced at sleepovers were basically blood pacts. Not that ae had much trouble keeping friends, but ae never had to talk to friends about something like this before. Discussing the latest werewolf romance novels on the market was one thing; this was something else entirely. If they weren't accepting, Mabel might just have to find new friends in Gravity Falls.

However, it turned out that ae had no reason to worry. Sheesh, Dipper was rubbing off on aer.

Grenda had immediately and excitedly slammed her fists onto the admissions table, yelling, “No way! I'm a trans girl!”

“Really?”

Without any time to process this admittedly loud statement, Mabel was then crushed by one of the strongest Grenda hugs of all time, joined by Candy, who somehow sneaked her way into the vice-like hug like a snake.

Mabel struggled to breathe under the rubber-band ball of arms around aer, and laughed. “So you guys are okay with it?”

Grenda’s booming voice assaulted Mabel's ears. “Yeah! You were so nice to us when you didn't even know us! How could we be mean to you?”

“You didn't really think we would be anything but okay with it, right?” Candy said, in-between Mabel’s body and one of Grenda’s arms.

Mabel giggled. “Of course not. You're my people.”

They broke up the hug. “Alright! Who wants to party?” Mabel shouted. "There's a karaoke machine!"

Grenda and Candy whooped as they ran towards said machine, Mabel smiling at them. Ae didn't follow immediately, however, searching the party decorations and tables for aer brother. Ae spotted him standing in front of the refreshments table with his hands in his pockets. Ae walked over and casually elbowed him.

“What?”

“Candy and Grenda were cool, if that makes you feel more ready.”

“Oh.” He swallowed. Despite the fact that these were more Mabel's friends than his own, this still reminded him of his previous experience coming out to friends, which, to put it shortly, did not go well. His school friends had stopped really talking to him, and he could hear them making fun of him behind his back. He basically had to abandon his friend group, and had a hard time building a new one.

This did not feel like it would go any better.

“Hey, this'll be nothing like those jerks at school.”

He looked at his sibling, who seemed completely confident in his success, which made him feel a bit better. "You think so?"

Mabel was about to respond, when ae spotted the pair heading their way. “Oh, hey! They're coming over right now. You could just say it.”

“Yeah.” He fidgeted. His pixie cut and sports bras didn't make him up to be a convincing boy, and even though he knew that was just his nerves talking and that he was a boy no matter what, it didn't help. He suddenly felt self-conscious, but pushed it down as Grenda and Candy approached. 

"We didn't want to start the karaoke without you, Mabel," Candy explained. "Hey, are those chocolate-chip?"

"Oh, uh, yeah," Dipper answered, glancing at the cookies behind him. Before the girls could respond, Dipper seized the chance to say what he wanted to say, willing himself not too think too hard about it. "H-Hey, guys, um, I just wanted to tell you that I'm a boy.” Gah, he said that really quickly, didn't he? Were they looking at him weird, or were they just looking at him in general?

“All right!” Grenda’s yell pierced his ears, and he was momentarily confused about what exactly this yell meant, but as they pushed past Mabel and him to grab some punch, he supposed that it was just a very casual acceptance, and felt relief wash over him.

Mabel squealed out that ae was proud of him, Candy offered him some punch, Grenda grabbed an entire plate of cookies, and the party went on.


	3. Stranger Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper comes out to Ford after he gets some advice from Mabel and Stan.

“Ugh, Mabel, I feel like I'm gonna vomit.” Dipper had everyone call him a her around Great-Uncle Ford when he first came out of the portal, since Ford initially saw him as a girl and Dipper was too worried about meeting the Author to also handle correcting him. Now that things had settled a bit and he actually felt like he needed to come out, however, it was proving rather difficult.

Mabel sat next to Dipper on his bed and rubbed his back as he nearly failed at keeping his nerves from solidifying themselves into nervous puke. “You shouldn't worry so much, Dipper! He's probably seen all kinds of crazy alien gendery stuff through those weird owl glasses of his. He probably won't even care that I'm not even in the binary!” Aer optimism was, from Dipper’s point of view, hardly useful.

“Yeah, but, we don't _know_.”

“You're right, but _I_ know that you're super cool and if he's weirded out by you, then that's his problem.”

“Ugh, yeah, but... I don't know.” He laid down on his bed like a beached fish. “It's the _author_.” He kind of wanted to ask Mabel to come out to Great-Uncle Ford first, so that Dipper knew what to expect, but he knew that was completely unfair. If he wanted Great-Uncle Ford to know, he should do it himself without making someone else "go first."

"Yeah. You'll _never_ know if you don't try though, right? And if he's mean about it, _which he won't be,_ you still have a whole town of people that like you for who you are."

"I guess... I still need more time to think about it though." And by "think about", he meant "get advice from more people and worry."

* * *

"I just don't know how to tell him. He's... he's the author of the journals, and I don't want to... weird him out, or, or disappoint him." Dipper leaned over and stared at the floorboards of the shack's porch. The couch had a variety of nasty stains on it that were kind of uncomfortable to stare at, so after a while he stopped looking at the couch's arm and started looking at the ground instead. He couldn't believe he was actually trying to get advice from Grunkle Stan, of all people.

“Ha, he's pretty darn weird, kid. It probably wouldn't bother him much." Stan took a sip of his Pitt Cola, and realized that Dipper was still on the edge of a nervous breakdown next to him. "Hey, if it helps, you're pretty manly. Take that and run with it.”

“Huh?” Dipper looked up from his hands.

“Yeah. It's pretty brave of you to come out, you know, not to mention all the other crazy stuff you've done this summer. Be a man about it and confront ‘im. Next time Ford calls you a girl, or hell, just whenever, be like, ‘I'm a guy.’ Y’know, with confidence. No room for arguments."

“Thanks, Grunkle Stan. That actually… really makes me feel better,” Dipper said in response, wiping his eyes. He hadn't been on the verge of tears, of course not.

“Don't sweat it, kid. You do enough of that already.”

* * *

 "Prince Unattainabeau offers a ride on his trusty steed,” Stanford called, as he mimicked a brave prince’s pose. But right as he went in for the shocking reveal -

“Uh, I mean, I don't know about my character, but since it's based off me anyways I thought you should know that I actually like girls, so _I_ probably wouldn't care whether or not some prince came up to me…” He had chosen a girl character in the beginning, playing safe in case his Grunkle suspected something. He knew the character's gender had nothing to do with that of the player, but he was still scared that Ford would somehow figure it out.

“Oh?”

Dipper couldn't help himself. The words pushed their way out of him. He didn't want the Author himself (and knowing that the Author was in the shack, and related to him, still amazed him) to mistakenly think he was a lesbian when he was really a straight guy, and before he could retract anything, he felt he had to explain the rest. “And… and I'm also a transgender boy.” He exclaimed, with finality and rising confidence. “So you should be calling me a he and all that stuff! It doesn't matter what my -”

“Dipper, it’s alright.” He went silent. “I've seen stranger things than people going outside their assignment of gender. Heck, even without considering alien concepts of gender, I had a friend in college who was just like you.”

“Really?” He never hears about older trans people outside of the Internet. To be hearing someone talk about a trans adult, especially from decades ago, amazed him. Was he still alive? Did he live a good life?

“Yes. I wonder how he's doing now.” Ford seemed to ponder this for a moment, and then brushed the thought away. “Well, I'll make sure to get it right, Dipper. You don't have to worry about that.” They shared a smile, and Ford resumed the campaign.

“Now, where were we. Ah yes, I suppose it would be _Princess Unattainabelle_ …”

They played Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons for hours, and when Dipper went upstairs with a roll of graph paper under his arm, he made sure to tell Mabel what had happened. Ae told him that it was proof that ae never had any bad ideas, and promptly came out to Grunkle Ford the next morning when ae brought breakfast down to the basement. He blinked, said something about nonbinary aliens, asked aer about aer pronouns again to make sure he heard them right, and thanked aer for the breakfast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fiddleford is definitely not doing super well at this point in canon, sorry, Ford.


	4. Glitterfriend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pacifica and Mabel watch so-bad-it's-good romance movies together, and Mabel has something to tell her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know updates to this are completey random, sorry, and idek when this one takes place (I think after NMM but otherwise???) but I needed some accepting fluff tonight and I had been slowly working on this little chapter for like, months and finally finished it up. surprise mabifica, also, bi pacifica appeared out of nowhere while I was writing this so she's here now.

“Wow, Mabel, you weren't lying when you said you were good at making fancy blanket forts. This is like, a _mansion_ of bedding architecture. And I would know!”

The fort in question covered the entire attic room, including the two beds. Dipper left to sleep over at Wendy’s and watch old horror movies, so the attic was subsequently available for impressive feats of blanket engineering.

“Right?” Mabel exclaimed, and gestured to the entrance of the elaborate fort. “Let’s go in! I dragged the TV up here and stocked our movie supply with all kinds of bad romances!” The square opening in the soft enclosure, flanked by two hanging fuzzy pink blankets and topped with one of the many coarse afghans that make up the structure’s roof, was lined with blinking Christmas lights for added flair. Two pastel stuffed animals, one a nondescript bird and one a duck, also graced either side of the entrance, serving as faithful guardians for the wonderland within.

Pacifica immediately crouched down to crawl right in, her silk nightgown falling over her knees, when Mabel tutted. “Uh uh! First you must shake the hands of the hosts and thank them for their dedication. One of them is even wearing a top hat!”

Pacifica was confused for a moment, and then remembered the stuffed animals sitting at the opening of the fort. The duck was indeed wearing a top hat. If a fond scoff is possible, Pacifica gave it, gripped the ends of the stuffed animal arms in her manicured hands, and shook them firmly. “Thank you for a wonderful sleepover, kind sirs,” she said, imitating the snooty manner in which her dad greeted the hosts at the fancy dinner parties her family used to attend. She and Mabel burst into giggles.

“Is that good enough, my fellow sleepover-goer?” Pacifica asked from the floor.

Mabel laughed. “I think they'll allow it.” With that, Pacifica crawled in, and Mabel dropped down to thank the stuffed animals as well - using many more fancy and (probably) made up titles - before entering after her.

The inside was more spacious than expected. It seemed like everywhere Pacifica looked, there was a stuffed animal or pillow placed for either construction purposes or decoration. At one end, placed in front of the bedside table, was the TV, with various cheesy movies assorted next to it. In front of the foot of Dipper’s bed was an impressive array of various fizzy drinks, snacks, and a pack of water bottles just in case. Placed in direct view of the TV was a very soft-looking pile of blankets and pillows, even better than the entire “floor” of the fort, which was made up of many overlapping blankets.

“Do you like it? I even covered up the nails sticking out of the floor that kept poking people!” Mabel exclaimed, as ae crawled to the pile and sat on it.

“Yeah, it's… weirdly awesome. I've never actually been in a blanket fort before.” Pacifica joined Mabel and sat on her legs to the right of aer.

“What!” Mabel couldn't imagine a child never ever even attempting a blanket fort before. Ae had constructed _many_ in aer short lifetime. They were fun and way cooler than what you normally use bed stuff for. Of course, this one was more elaborate, since ae really wanted it to be special for aer girlfriend; still, casual blanket forts were just as fun.

“Yeah, when I was allowed to have sleepovers, apparently forts weren't in line with proper ‘sleepover etiquette.’” Pacifica snorted. “Jeez, that sounds so dumb now.”

“Well, there's no ‘sleepover etiquette’ here. Just be yourself! No fanciness required.”

Pacifica smiled at Mabel softly, and got comfortable on the blanket pile as well. “Alright, what’s up first? I’m just dying to know what happens in… _The Forbidden Desires of a Werewolf_ ,” she said, squinting at one of the DVD cases.

“Ooh, that one’s really good, we’ll save that one for last!” Pacifica can’t tell if Mabel thinks it’s so bad it’s good or if it’s actually _good_ , but she doesn’t bother asking. “I think we’ll go with… _Surprise Love Attack from Above_ , for an appetizer.”

“Wait, what comes from above?”

“I’m not gonna ruin the surprise, silly,” Mabel responded cryptically, popped the DVD out of its case, and put it in.

* * *

The “surprise love attack from above” turned out to be from aliens. One alien commander landed on Earth to scope out the planet for destruction but ended up falling for the receptionist he met at the first human establishment he wandered into, and together they vowed to stop the alien invasion with the power of love.

Better than it sounded, really.

“Hey, Paz?”

“Yeah?” Pacifica said, apparently deeply engrossed in the alien plot to overcome the googly eyes of the main couple.

Mabel was really into it too - and the receptionist was so cute - but ae needed to tell Pacifica this. It had been rattling around in aer brain for a while now, and ae felt like it was about to burst out of aer.

The yelling in the movie stopped, and Pacifica looked down to see Mabel’s finger on the PAUSE button of the remote.

“Hey, what’s up, Mabel?” She definitely knew by now that _something_ was up. The only thing that stopped Mabel from finishing these movies once they started was probably death itself.

The worn and pilly sleeves of Mabel’s purple nightgown were wrapped around tense fists that rested on aer bare knees. Wendy just kind of found out, and _she_ was okay with it, so why is telling Pacifica so hard when ae’s actually in _control_ of the situation? Ae had even come out to other people purposefully and it wasn't this hard.

Ae tried to push the sentences out, and swallowed, and tried again. “Well, I’ve been meaning to tell you for a while now and it just… never came up.” Which wasn’t difficult, considering Pacifica and aer usually hung out alone, and when they were with Dipper, he knew not to say anything. “I’m not a girl or a boy, so… yeah. I'm... genderqueer. Do I… do you know what that is, or-or should I explain it more...?” Ae trailed off.

A pause, and then Pacifica said, “I think I know what you're talking about. I've heard of it before.” Mabel looked shocked. Pacifica looked into aer worried eyes, put a hand on aer tense arm, and genuinely insisted, “And Mabel, it's totally fine _._ ” She attempted a reassuring smile. “Do you - Do you need me to call you anything new? I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable.”

She was almost tossed backwards when Mabel attack-hugged her. “Oh, thank you so much, Paz!” Ae broke away from the hug. “It's so nice of you to ask! I actually use these pronouns, um, they're not ‘they’, they're actually… I have a pic on my phone somewhere."

Pacifica patiently waited with a small smile as Mabel dug out aer extremely bedazzled flip phone, and accepted the device when it was thrust nervously at her, a pronouns graphic displayed on the screen reading examples of “ae/aer” pronouns and how to pronounce them. She read them silently, then put down the phone to lean up and plant a kiss on Mabel’s forehead, earning a blush from aer. “I can totally use these, Mabes. Are you okay with using these around whoever, or?”

“Yeah,” Ae said, still recovering from the sweetest gesture in the world, the forehead kiss. “I don't want you to take this the wrong way but our other friends already know… and so does my grunkle. I was just… really worried about how you would respond. Sorry…” Ae ran a hand through aer hair and looked away from Pacifica’s face.

“It's alright, I totally get it. I told most of my friends I was bi and then waited, like, 3 months to tell the one friend who was still out of the loop, Stacy, because I didn't wanna make things weird.”

“Was she okay with it?”

“Eh, not initially, but I made it clear to her that being okay with it wasn't optional if she wanted to stay friends, and she came around.” She suddenly got a ferocious look on her face. “But listen to me, you don't have to put up with that if you don't want to. If someone starts disrespecting you like that, give me their names and I can give them social death within 24 hours, trust me.”

“Aww, Paz, that's both cruel _and_ sweet!” Mabel gave her an enthusiastic hug.

When they separated, Mabel was about to press play on the remote, when Pacifica abruptly placed her hand upon aers to stop it. “Ooh, I have one final question.”

“Oh, what is it?”

“So what should I call you instead of girlfriend? Assuming you want something different, that is.”

“Omigosh!” Mabel clapped aer cheeks with both hands in shock, and would have stood as well if there was the room for it, but instead made do with bouncing on her feet while crouching. “I hadn't even thought of that!” Ae sat back down with a creative look about aer. “Think of the possibilities! I've heard of datemate, buuut we could totally come up with a new term if we wanted to!”

“Hmm…” Pacifica contemplated for a moment, trying to think of all the things that reminded her of her date. “How about ‘glitterfriend’?”

Mabel seemed like ae had stars in her eyes in that moment. “Paz, that's _perfect._ Let's use that, effective _immediately_.”

“Alright, glitterfriend.” Pacifica smiled, and booped aer nose.

Mabel snorted and poked her back. “Alright, girlfriend.”

They snuggled cosier into their blanket cocoon and pressed play, the sounds of alien laser guns and the voices of the main cast filling their comfortable and easy silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I dunno what came over me, I've never written mabifica before (always thought it was cute though). I guess it's canon for this series now haha!


	5. French Toast and Friendship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper and Pacifica end up having an important chat when he comes home from his sleepover at Wendy's.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place right after the last chapter. TippyToe_Zombie mentioned seeing Dipper come out to Pacifica (I know the comment is months old, I'm sorry!!), so thanks for the inspiration! ... even though it took me ages to come back to this fic lol.
> 
> Btw, this part of the series miiight be wrapping up soon somehow. the chapters are just scenarios and not really a plot, so I'm not sure, but we'll see, because the timeline is still chronological and at this point it's pretty late into the show's timeline.

The strong scent of pines wafted through the air as Dipper made his way to the Shack, sleepover bag slung over his arm. It was still early and slightly foggy. Endless layers of pine needles shifted underfoot, but otherwise the morning was simple and quiet. If the nice view of the trees as they passed overhead wasn’t accompanied by hoards of bugs and monsters and bug-monsters, maybe Dipper would actually kind of miss these woods. Sure, the creatures were cool and amazing, but not when you just wanted to take a stroll.

As it stands, he’d probably miss the Shack more than anything, even though it falls apart every other day. He dreaded going back to Piedmont, where people didn’t know who he was. But for now, it’s alright.

It’s alright, because he didn’t have to go home yet. There was still some time left.

He pulled out a dozen keys and began the long process of unlocking the mountain of locks Grunkle Stan saw fit to throw all over the front door. Grunkle Stan was probably still asleep since it was Sunday, Mabel’s weekend sugar binges made aer crash _hard_ , and it would be a miracle if Great Uncle Ford was somewhere other than the basement, so no one was really around to let him in.

Expertly avoiding the creaky steps of the still-sleeping house, Dipper made his way to the attic and stopped short at Mabel’s and his door. There was sparkly confetti ingrained in the floorboards leading up to the door, and a piece of paper taped to it cheerfully announced, “Mabel and Pacifica Sleepoverpalooza!” surrounded by an appropriate amount of smiley faces.

Oh right. Mabel had a sleepover too.

Sighing in preemptive weariness for the absolute mess that no doubt waited beyond, Dipper knocked quietly on the door. To his surprise, it creaked open.

He peeked inside. Instead of the whirlwind of destruction and questionable choices that happened last time Mabel held a sleepover here, there was just a tame blanket fort instead. Granted, it was huge, but in comparison with last time, very tame.

Through the little entrance he could just make out the sleeping bodies of Mabel and Pacifica. He gently put his bag down and left the room, closing the door behind him.

When he came back upstairs with paper plates full of microwaved French toast sticks, Pacifica was already stretching and yawning. As Dipper approached the fort, he got the satisfaction of seeing someone else try to get Mabel up after a night of sugar and snacks. It’s an age-old struggle, and it feels both weird and oddly nice to be relating to Pacifica about it.

“Get up, sleepyhead, I need to get home by 10, which means we only have, like, three more hours to hang out!” Pacifica poked her glitterfriend’s arm to no avail. If Weirdmaggedon happened a second time right next to them in that attic, Mabel would be none the wiser.

“Uh, hey, Pacifica. I have… microwaved French toast if you want?” Dipper tried to hide his laugh in his words. Pacifica eyed the uncivilized plate for a moment, then shrugged and took it.

“Sure. I’m not eating this sugary mess in here though.” She looked around at her fuzzy surroundings, every part of which would be extremely prone to eternal stickiness if the food fell. “I’m not a complete degenerate.”

Pacifica climbed out of the fort and sat down on the hardwood floor next to Dipper, who had his own plate and had set down Mabel’s for when ae woke up.

She was a stick and a half in when she thought to say, “uh, thanks, Dipper. This is actually not completely terrible.”

Gratitude was clearly not Pacifica’s forte, but Dipper smiled anyway as he dipped a stick in some syrup. “No problem. Um, how was the sleepover?”

“Oh, your sis - I mean, your sibling really knows how to pick out _horrible_ movies,” she laughed, and then quietly added with a smile, “I… really had a lot of fun.” And if she blushed, Dipper wouldn’t say anything.

Wait. “Sibling”. Did Mabel come out to her?

Well, Dipper wasn’t about to _ask_. “That’s good. I was really expecting the attic to be totally destroyed, so it’s nice that the most you guys did was make a fort.”

“Wow, do aer sleepovers _usually_ wreck the place?”

Yep, Mabel told her. Dipper laughed. “Yeah, pretty much.”

“You know…” Pacifica put down her food, hesitation showing in her voice. “She - ae’s really lucky to have you as a sister. Ae was really worried about coming out to me and apparently you already knew. So… thanks, I guess? For being… nice to aer. Ae told me how much you support aer.” She was looking away, adamant in avoiding eye contact.

Dipper blinked in surprise. “That’s… weirdly nice, Pacifica. Thanks.” He looked down. “It means a lot to me that you’re so chill about aer. I probably wouldn’t be able to be your friend otherwise, so… yeah. And it’s actually not hard for me to empathize with aer ‘cause I’m... not aer sister?” He shrugged, not really expecting to come out in this conversation but ending up letting the words come out. It was much easier when it turned out Pacifica was okay with Mabel. “I’m a trans guy, actually.”

“Oh shoot. That actually makes… a lot of sense.”

Dipper hunched in on himself. “What, is it really that obvious?”

Pacifica backtracked, shaking her head. “Sorry, jeez, that sounded really stupid now that I think about it. No, you just seemed uncomfortable the entire time you were going after that ghost for my family. I thought it was ‘cause we were intimidating, but now I realize it was probably because you wore a dress.” She gave him a tentative smile. “I’m really sorry about that.”

Dipper remembered that night. He didn’t want to wear a suit around a bunch of people who would think he was a girl anyway. Instead of being seen as a “weird girl”, he went for the safer option of just plain “girl” and grabbed one of Mabel’s dresses. It _sucked_.

“Eh, it’s not your fault. Hopefully I just… won’t have to do it again.” His short-lived smile dropped. “So it’s - it’s fine then?”

“What do you - oh,” Pacifica said. “Yes, of course. If you need anything, like transition stuff or whatever, I can, uh, probably help you out. Either of you, actually.”

“Whoa, you don’t have to do that.” That was not something Dipper expected at all. “But I mean, that’s really nice of you. Thanks. And… you can call me a he and stuff around anyone, I don’t mind.” To Dipper’s shock, he really didn’t. This was the easiest conversation about this that he’d ever had. He suspected that going back to Piedmont and surrounding himself with his old classmates and family would change everything, but he wasn’t in Piedmont right now, so he savored the nice feeling.

Pacifica nodded.

“Hey, that smells good!” Mabel’s voice suddenly erupted from behind them, slightly muffled by the walls of the blanket fort.

“You’re awake!” Pacifica exclaimed. Dipper grabbed the third plate and held it out to a freshly-awoken Mabel, who crawled out of the fort like a gremlin that had never seen the light of day.

The sun was higher in the sky now, softly brightening the attic’s old flooring. Mabel munched on aer breakfast and Pacifica chatted with them both. It was quiet, and nice, and calm for once.

Even if Dipper wasn’t going to miss Gravity Falls before, he definitely will now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so many ellipses in this fic lmfao


End file.
